A.C. Grayling and Happiness

I saw the philosopher A.C. Grayling speak at a lecture series on Happiness, and I was very impressed by what he said. And he was so cute with that long philosopher hair (pic above doesn't do him justice) and passion for his subject matter emanating from every pore.

He spoke about being happy versus living a good life. As he writes in his book What is Good? The Search for the Best Way to Live:

"Many important and difficult questions arise in the course of a human life, but few can compare with the most significant question any individual can ask, namely, 'How shall I live, in order to live a good life?'"

His speech was lively, passionate and contained such nuggets as the observation that each of us only lives about 1,000 months so we'd better get on with finding purpose in our existence.

I became so enthusiastic about A.C. that I ordered books of his from Amazon and enthusiastically started to read.

After reading a few chapters in different works of his, I realized that he is afflicted with the same problem that plagued scientist Stephen Jay Gould.

They might be (or have been, in Gould's case) brilliant thinkers, but their writing doesn't reflect it. In fact, their over-complicated and sometimes turgid writing styles positively stand in the way of people comprehending their messages.